Initial Jobless Claims Rise for week of Jan 24, 2012, Durable Goods Orders Increase and New Home Sales Fall in December 2011:
Jobless claims fall marginally.
Initial jobless claims rose but not by much. Claims for initial unemployment benefits rose for the week ended January 21, 2012 the Labor Department said today. Applications for benefits rose by 21,000 to 377,000 and took back some of the gains of last week when unemployment claims fell 50,000. The short-term change in jobless claims didn’t disappoint the markets and the major averages posted gains in the early ours of trading but gave much of the gains back by 3:00 pm EST today.
Durable Goods Orders for December 2011 Rise:
Durable goods orders rose in December 2011. The number of orders for goods that will last three years increased and is evidence that big capital spenders are purchasing products at low prices now before other firms jump in which could add inflationary price pressures. The Commerce Department said today, manufacturers’ durable goods orders increased by 3 percent to a seasonally adjusted $214.52 billion. Durable goods orders also increased in November and the follow through ordering suggests manufacturing activity is getting stronger. The closely watched orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft rose by 2.9% in December 2011 and this could mean a broad based dispersion of spending.
New Home Sales Fall In December 2011
New home sales fell in December as new homebuyers favored existing home inventory. New home sales fell in December by 2.2 percent the Commerce Department said today. The decrease in new home sales comes on the heels of three straight increases monthly and makes the new seasonally adjusted annual rate 307,000. Due to high unemployment, the housing market is a less substantial part of the economy and a full recovery hasn’t taken place although the sector seems to be stronger than at the worst part of the crisis that began in 2007.
The three economic data points released today didn’t show a strong break from trend and the absolute values don’t warrant any change in our outlook. We expect data to be mixed for the next few weeks yet we don’t envision large – negative inflections from trends that seem to be confirmed. Jobless claims will continue to fall over the next few months if the economy can continue to grow and manufacturers spend more on capital equipment. The housing market may need more time and this summer will be important for determining whether trends related to home sales are improving.
